Fable II
Fable 2 is an upcoming role playing video game for the Xbox 360, in development by Lionhead Studios and will be published by Microsoft Game Studios. It is a sequel to Fable and Fable: The Lost Chapters. Announced in 2006, it will be released on October 24st, 2008. The game will take place in Albion, 500 years after Fable's setting, in a colonial era resembling the time of highwaymen or the Enlightenment. Guns are still primitive, and the entire area is free roaming and is more developed, with huge castles and cities in the place of towns. Gameplay Combat Announced at E3 2007, all melee combat takes place on the X button. All ranged combat runs on the Y button and magic on the B button. Flourishes will be shown in a different perspective and time will slow down to show finishing moves. Moves done in melee combat are also dependent on where the player is located. For example, if a player is on top of a tower, pressing the X button may cause the player to throw a certain enemy off of the tower rather than attack with a weapon. Also, in the X360 edition of the combat with a not yet ready combat engine shows you can use the environment which leads on to different combat reaches. The character can get into a bar fight shown in the combat demo (the first tested engine). There are multiple different weapon types known of so far: guns, axes, swords, hammers, and maces. Crossbows remain a possibility. It has been confirmed recently on the Lionhead blogs that the longbows will not be in Fable 2 due to the appearance of guns in Albion. Although bows are no longer available it has been rumoured that upgraded versions of the crossbows will be introduced to keep up with the firearms.http://community.lionhead.com/blogs/fable_2_development/default.aspx From the videos of game demonstration we can infer that each magic spell has an area and a targeted variation depending upon the orientation of the left analog stick. Not touching it will result in a widespread area effect while tilting the left stick will result in a further-reaching directional attack that may inflict more damage. This may or may not apply for all spells, or it may have been scrapped by now. Dog In Fable and Fable: The Lost Chapters, the Hero wandered Albion alone and saving all the people, with help sometimes. But Fable 2 brings a new ally on the scene, Man's Best Friend. Molyneux announced that the Hero of Fable 2 shall have a Dog to look after, as well as himself. The player will encounter this Dog early in the game, and it will stay with the player til the end. This dog also goes with the theme of emotion, a theme that Lionhead wishes to be in Fable 2, the emotion with the dog would most likely be love, or maybe even hate. Every dog in the game will be unique and will morph depending on the alignment of the character. The dog has also been said to alert the player to threats, while not showing the player to the threat itself making for a stealthy kill. It is also going to replace the radar we saw in the orginal Fable by telling the Player where they should be going. It will also attack the enemies that have an advantage over the player, such as if the hero had a melee weapon drawn, it would attack the enemy with the Ranged weapon. In a recent interview and game demonstration Molyneux showed some of the interactions players can have with their dog, including buying toys, playing fetch and rewarding or punishing their dogs for their behavior. Obeying three main laws: do not irritate the player, unconditionally love the player and self-preservation, the Dog has been given advanced AI. The dog isn't controllable directly, but the actions of the player will control the dog. If the player goes to attack, the dog will attack aswell, if the player starts to run, the dog aswell run. Obviously, the dogs behavior is context-specific, and when in towns, or if the player is injured, the dog will stay closer than if it was outside. If the player goes in a shop, the dog will wait outside the door, and go back to the player when it walks out. Also, the dog can be trainable by expressions. Molyneux also revealed that if the player seriously does not want a dog, then they have to run away and escape from it (preferably when it is injured), although the dog will track down the player, causing him or her to run away again. One example given is if the dog is injured and the player leaves and goes to the pub, later there will be a scratching at the door. Someone will open the door for it and observers will react negatively. Family Like in the original Fable, you have the ability to fall in love, get married and have sexual relations with this woman - or man. But in Fable 2, the idea of Family has been changed so it fits more in with the theme of Emotion. As in Fable, you have the ability to get married, either by a woman or a man, we are led to believe it still doesn't matter what gender you marry, no matter what gender your character is. You also still have the ability to have sexual intercourse with this partner, but with some new features. Now you can choose between having protected and unprotected sex. Having unprotected sex with a person of the opposite sex can lead the female of the party, be it hero or npc, may get pregnant and concieve a child. This child will stay at home, either with the mother or the father while the hero goes out to do heroic deeds. Depending on the hero's alignment, also dictates the child's alignment, so if you're evil your child will be a little devil and vice versa. Death Originally, in Fable II, if the hero/heroine had died, a child of theirs would take up as the main hero, but that led to testers making more and more children in the game. Then the thought came along of the player's character not dying upon defeat. Rather, he or she would fall unconscious once he or she loses all of his or her health. The enemies would then injure the character while they were unconscious by beating, kicking or stabbing them, which would have left permanent and humiliating scars. Falling unconscious could be avoided with one of three sacrifices: gold, reputation or experience gained. At GDC 08, Molyneux indicated in interviews that the design for death had changed due to player feedback during play testing. It was found that players would rather turn off their console than subject their character to permanent disfigurement. The newest thought is that if the hero was killed, a small amount of experience points are subtracted, causing the player to burst into "hero mode," which repels away enemies long enough for the player to escape. Alignment Unlike the original Fable and Fable: The Lost Chapters, there are now other alignments apart from good and evil. Lionhead has decided to add more choices concerning how you customise your player. These new scales of alignment include: * Purity and corruption * Cruelty and kindness * Mind and body * Wealthy and poor These new scales of alignment will allow players to create a possible 32 different combinations, for a truly unique experience everytime you play. Category:Games